Gathering Blue Formal Essay

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Gathering Blue Formal Essay
In her novel “The Giver”, Lois Lowry displays a society that embraces sameness in order to stay safe by eliminating strife and pain. This plan of ‘sameness’ has led to a society with individuals who cannot exercise their choices nor can they question the orders given to them by the leaders e.g. releasing of the unhealthy infants and the old adults. This society has been ridded of their emotional depth as well as the ability to learn from their past mistakes. In her article, Lea questions what this secondary world created by Lowry encourage us to reassess in our own real world (53). Based on this, Lea examines the dystopia in “the giver” as “a metaphor for racism” in the real world (1). In response to Lea’s question, this paper will examine the world created in Lowry’s novel “Gathering Blue” and its implications in the real world.
In “Gathering Blue”, readers experience a world in which the society rejects those who are weak e.g. Kira who is lame and orphaned. This society is ruled by authoritative people i.e. the Council of Guardians, who have the power to decide who lives and who dies. This world also seems to be chaotic which is displayed in the extract “Kira continued through the crowds, past the food shops and the noise of bickering, bargaining women… (Lowry, 53). In this society, one needs to contribute to it in order to survive or risk being rendered weak and being led to “rest in the field of leaving”.

This is proven by Kira’s situation in which she is shunned by the community and for her to survive she has to prove to the Council of Guardians that she can contribute to the community.
This dystopic society displayed in “Gathering Blue” comments on various issues in our real world. Similar to Lea’s examination of the “the giver” as a representation for racism in the real world, “Gathering Blue” displays incidents that can be inferred to as the writer’s way of commenting on the racism in our world. This is evident when Lowry introduces “Fen”, a town in which people from there are viewed as different. These people are identified by their bizarre speech, strange etiquettes and are demeaned by others in the community (9). This situation depicts the racism that is rampant in our real world where some people are discriminated on the basis of their ethnicity and race. This provokes the notions held by readers and our society on racism and calls on the need to reassess the viewpoint on this issue.
Throughout the book, the struggle and view of people with disability by the society is displayed. This is evident in Kira’s survival which is entirely pegged on her talent only i.e. without the talent she would be rendered weak and sent to the “field of the Leaving”. Similar to the dystopic world, in the real world people with deformities go through challenges. In some parts of the world today, these people are shunned away, looked down upon, denied similar opportunities to those given to people with no deformities e.g. in employment and they are stigmatized.
The utopic and dystopic worlds in both books i.e. the giver and gathering blue display different issues that our real world needs to address, .e.g., Freedom in choices and artistic creativity, discrimination of people with disabilities and racism. Through comparison and similarity of the dystopic world in this thought-provoking book, one finds themselves reassessing the viewpoints of various issues in the real world. Additionally, various lessons and solutions can be drawn from the book which can be applicable in the real world.
Work cited
Lea, Susan G. “Seeing beyond sameness: using The giver to challenge colorblind ideology.” Children’s Literature in Education 37.1 (2006): 51-67.
Lowry, Lois. “Gathering blue.” Delacorte Books for Young Readers, 2006.